AAI takes the necessary steps to get archery back on track

NEW DELHI: India will be represented by a 16-member junior team at
the upcoming Asia Cup in Bangkok, while the
much-awaited national ranking championships and senior nationals
will be hosted by Bhubaneswar from March 9 to 16, informed the
newly-elected body of the Archery Association of
India (AAI).

The AAI, under its president B V P Rao, has decided to send two
separate teams to the first World Cup in Medellin, Colombia from
April 22 to 28 and to the World Championships at The Netherlands'
Hertogenbosch city from June 3 to 16, which will offer the
country's archers the first opportunity to book a berth for the
2020 Tokyo Olympics.

These decisions by Raoled AAI, marked the return of archery into
the mainstream after the sport lived an uncertain life for six
years owing to the AAI's derecognition by the sports ministry in
December 2012. Apart from announcing a slew of tournaments to clear
the archery backlog, including holding of the junior (recurve,
compound and Indian round) national championships in Bhopal from
February 7 to 14, the AAI has decided to select the senior team for
the Netherlands Worlds in March itself, a good three months in
advance from the event.

"Probables for the national camp will be selected through the open
selection trials which will held in the last week of January. Teams
selected from the final trial will take part at the Worlds and the
World Cup," Rao told TOI. However, as the AAI is looking to rebuild
the sport, it has run into another administrative fight with its
familiar foe - Jharkhand Archery Association (JAA).

Putting aside the rulebook, the JAA has elected Arjun Munda, who
was the JAA's chief patron till the last week, as its new president
on January 8. This after JAA president Sunil Bhaskaran resigned
without any trigger.

Rao wondered why JAA did not inform AAI of its elections so that it
would have sent an observer, a mandatory requirement as per the AAI
constitution. "It's a general practice that in case of president's
resignation, one of the senior vice-presidents takes charge and
runs the federation activities being the acting president till the
proper election of the association is not held. Why this haste?"
Rao wondered. AAI has show-caused the JAA and asked them to reply
to its notice by January 20.